Feast of St. Agnes, January 21

 

St. Agnes drew the attention of lots of men - but she had promised God that she would stay faithful only to Him. This angered the son of the governor, Procop, so much that he ratted her out as a Catholic to his dad. The governor tried to get her to renounce God first with gifts, and then by placing her in a ...well, we'll call it a place of sin. An angel protected her from debauchery, and Agnes never gave in.

St. Agnes was martyred by beheading at the age of 13. She's the patron saint of young women and purity.

This is interesting:

" There are many old customs prevalent on the Eve of St. Agnes that concern rites in which the young village maidens discovered their future husbands. Dreams were also important on the Eve of St. Agnes. If a maid went supperless to bed or fasted all day and ate only a salt-filled egg at night, she would certainly dream of her future husband. Another custom was to take a sprig of rosemary and a sprig of thyme, sprinkle each three times with water, and put one in each shoe. Then a shoe with its sprig was put on either side of her bed, while she repeated:

"St. Agnes, that's to lovers kind,
Come, ease the trouble of my mind."

She then was certain to dream of her husband. Yet another custom was for a young woman to take a row of pins, pull them out one by one, and stick them in her sleeve, while singing a Pater Noster (Our Father). Other customs included an unmarried woman to go into a different district from that in which she lived and spend the night. Before going to bed, she was to take her stocking from her right leg and knit it to the garter from the stocking on her left leg, singing as she did so. Then she was to lie on her back in bed with her hands under her head. She was assured that her future husband would appear to her in a dream and press a warm kiss upon her lips.